To think £110 for this Activity Week is too much?

[Eastie77Returns]

DD’s school has a Y6 Activity Week in the Summer term. It costs £110 and comprises:-

A movie and popcorn afternoon
Visit to the local the park (park is 2 mins from the school)
A day at a local beach
Visit to a theme park (entry is £23 per child)
An afternoon of tech design in the school

I cannot for the life of me work out how this can possibly cost £110. The school will receive almost £10k across the 3 form entry year. I’m a bit baffled??

Does it matter? You either want them to attend and pay it, or you don't.

Any coach travel involved to beach or theme park? Booking coaches is expensive.

The trips going to the beach and the theme park will cost around £25 and £45 at least respectively, stuff for tech design maybe £10 pp, popcorn and movie maybe £5pp. Add in teachers and you could make it up to £100 quite easily. Does it include lunch at the beach maybe or overtime for
teaxhers?

It will be almost entirely transport costs to the beach and the theme park. Coaches are extortionate and we have had to cut down school trips. The coach for each day trip will be about £35-£40 per student. So that's £70-80 for the theme park and beach trips, plus theme park entry and you've only got about a tenner per pupil for DT materials, snacks etc.
We have had to stop doing trips because of the cost increases in coaches.

How are they getting to the beach/ theme park? A coach could easily be £25 a head for each of those.

How many of the trips need coaches?

schools can’t make profit on these things - infact they often make a loss - so the cost will be right. But it seems a lot to try to do in one week rather than throughout the year

Do school have to.pay for a coach? If coach is used for theme park then perhaps a daily rate is applied? It will sit there and wait for return journey. Will not be taking on other jobs during this time.

All of those things don't cost much but do add up. Clearly the theme park is the most expensive. Bus travel has gone through the roof. How far away is the theme park? Are they walking to the beach?

Insurance will cost a lot, transport?
I very much doubt if the school will be making much at all from that.

Is the movie in the school? Is extra staff required for theme park?

Definitely the coach costs!

My school ran activity weeks for a few years.

The coaches are insanely expensive.

It's a lot of work for the teachers - the tech design afternoon will almost certainly be using materials and machines they otherwise could not afford, and they may have got a company in to do it.

My school stopped doing it because we had so many parental complaints.

We had an exam week instead.

Are they getting a coach to the beach?
Will they be brought ice creams at the park and/or beach?
Are the school just showing a film off the projector or are they hiring in a "cinema experience"?
How much are adult tickets to the local theme park?
Is there a coach to the theme park?
Is the tech afternoon being provided by an outside company?

Take off the ticket price for the theme part and its £87
Potentially two trips requiring coaches - these are usually £200 minimum
Teacher entry costs
Treats for the kids at the beach and/or park
Outside companies being hired in are often expensive

I think it sounds a lot on the face of it but actually probably isn't too far off depending on the above factors

Coach costs are horrendous atm
i’m having to pay £9 for a coach journey to somewhere which is just barely 2 miles away. The train would be much cheaper but when I queried that, the H&S aspects are too tricky to manage apparently

The school won't be making a profit on this, so whether you believe it or not that is the amount it will cost! As pp have said, coach costs are probably the main thing.

It sounds quite reasonably priced to me. Don't forget you're actually getting childcare included in that too

This is what I was going to say, if this is childcare all week with the activities this is reasonable.

The problem with trains is that if they get cancelled at short notice the train companies are not good at making sure you actually get to your destination.

If you've got a big school trip that's a problem.

If a coach breaks down/whatever the coach company usually go to a lot of effort to get you sorted again.

We had to charge kids £28 each for hiring a coach for the day recently, so assuming they are hiring coaches for two of those days, that's 28+28+23 (theme park entry) which is already £79 per child just for coach and entry tickets alone for two days.

@Peekaboobo I think it's in term time not the summer holidays.

We are pricing up coaches now. 80 mile round trip (and waiting while we are there for the day) and it would be around £500 for the day.

Obviously a money making ploy to fund the open bar at the teacher’s end of year do. (Sarcasm but something I have heard schools accused of for cake sales!)

We've got quotes coming in for a trip in July - 60 children plus staff. Quotes are all around £400 for a day!!! As all schools need coaches at that time of year, they can charge what they like.

Prices went through the roof after COVID as the companies had to recoup some lost money.

That's where most of that money for that week will be going..

(Also, what is this 'paid overtime for teachers' someone up thread mentioned??!! Sounds amazing! How I wish it were true...)

Ah ok. In that case, they've got a cheek. What about parents who don't actually have a spare £110? What are they supposed to do?

Transport. A coach I have booked for 1 class for a 20 mile round trip is £400

It isn't free childcare as the children would otherwise be at school.

I am sure they are not trying to rip you off, and they have obviously tried to keep some costs down with the trip to the park and the movie afternoon, but I do agree it feels expensive and I think a lot of people in my area would struggle to pay for it. I would probably wonder if the theme park trip was worth it, as that seems the big cost.